


I still believe in summer days

by Elisexyz



Series: 25 days of Swanfire fic-mas [13]
Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Everybody Lives, F/M, Fluff, Season 3B AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-19
Updated: 2018-12-19
Packaged: 2019-09-22 07:31:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,158
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17055752
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Elisexyz/pseuds/Elisexyz
Summary: Henry wants his parents to get back together already, and he isn't about to wait for them to figure things out on their own.





	I still believe in summer days

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the "Mistletoe" prompt in the [ "25 days of fic-mas" challenge on Tumblr](http://heytheredeann.tumblr.com/tagged/25-days-of-fic-mas/chrono). Yay for the fluff! ~~To recover from the last one.~~ Title from [here](https://songmeanings.com/songs/view/3530822107858748035/).

“I think it’d look better a little on the right,” Emma offers, tilting her head a bit as she looks at the tree. “It covers half the window.”

“I have other windows,” Neal says, with a shrug. Smart money says that he simply doesn’t want to go back to hugging the tree – which looked more than a little uncomfortable – and moving it around. Which, fair.

Not to mention that it’s _his_ apartment, it’s just that since she’s been invited to help setting all the decorations up she’s going to damn well give her input. Especially because she gets the feeling that it’d all be more awkward if she just followed him around like a puppy.

After they came back from Neverland, it wasn’t long before Neal moved out of his room at Granny’s: Gold owns half the city, after all, and he immediately offered him an apartment. Neal tried to pay rent, but Gold refused to let him on the grounds that he owes him a couple of hundreds of birthday gifts.

The apartment isn’t huge, but it’s big enough that Henry has a guest room for when he wants to sleep over and there’s a couch that folds out for any other visitors.

Emma has been spending a lot of time there lately, mostly because she still shares with her parents, and Neal’s couch is a million times better than being woken up every hour by a crying baby.

Still, they decided to take things slow, and this isn’t helping – she doesn’t want it to stop, but she’s self-aware enough to know that two people who have been dating like they don’t already have a kid together probably shouldn’t be spending so many nights in the same house.

She was set on being out of the way for Neal’s Christmas preparations, but Henry really wanted to help, and although Neal insisted on doing it during an afternoon that the kid _isn’t_ supposed to be spending with her, she impulsively decided that there was no harm in indulging their son.

It’s just putting up a couple of Christmas decorations, right?

Yeah, right.

“You just don’t want to move it again,” she points out, a slight amused smile on her lips.

“Or _maybe_ I just want the people walking by the street to see my beautiful tree,” he counters, raising his eyebrows.

Before she can think of a reply, Henry’s voice catches her attention.

“Mom! Dad! Come here, quick!”

They both turn around sharply, before heading to where Henry is standing, staring at something in his hands that she can’t see from there.

“What is it?” she asks, a little startled.  

Henry looks up to them, he offers a bright smile, then he announces: “Nothing!”

She frowns at him, waiting for some sort of explanation, and when none comes she shares a puzzled look with Neal, who seems just as clueless. Henry promptly steps away from them, grinning from ear to ear, then he points up.

“Look at that!” he prompts, and Emma is almost afraid to look. She hesitates a moment more than Neal before looking up, so as she raises her head she’s absolutely _delighted_ to hear his not too promising and very resigned: “ _Henry_.”

There’s mistletoe right over their heads. Of course there is.

Henry takes another step back, raising his hands. “Hey, don’t look at me! You have to kiss, that’s the _rule_.”

Emma opens her mouth to protest, her lips twisting into a _very_ nervous grin, because— yeah, no. They have been going out, and she guesses you could call it dating, but that’s just them trying to catch up and practising being _friends_ — it’s been working out great, they still click as they used to, but she isn’t about to screw it up by jumping him when they aren’t ready, much less because of a stupid tradition.

(She kinda wants to do it, but— dammit, she can’t survive screwing this up a second time. Things are going _well_. It’s not worth it. It _isn’t_.)

“Very funny, kid,” she comments, sarcastically.

“It’s not funny, it’s a _rule_ ,” Henry stresses. “If you don’t do it, it’s bad luck.”

“Come on, you made that up,” Emma immediately protests.

Henry raises his eyebrows. “You really wanna risk it? In the _magical_ town?”

Neal, helpful as always, snorts, amused and probably a little bit proud. Of course he is, those are _his_ annoying genes.

Emma shoots him a Look, and he sobers up a little, shrugging. “Sorry, it’s just a good point.” There’s a brief, awkward pause during which neither of them moves, Henry stares at them expectantly and Emma briefly contemplates attempting to conjure herself out of the house. “You know, we _could_ make him regret it,” Neal finally says, quietly so that Henry can’t hear and a little hesitantly. “If you’re up to it.”

She sets her jaw, and something in her says: _Run_.

“Are you?” she counters, instead.

He shrugs. “We _have_ done more than kissing with tongue,” he jokes. “And, uh— yeah, I guess. If you want.”

Okay, you know what? Screw it, if Henry is going to make it awkward they _are_ going to make him regret it.

(It’s just a little kiss, after all. Nothing they’ve never done before.)

She’s the one who steps forward and wraps her arms around his neck like she’s never stopped doing it, and she only has time to catch a hint of a smile on his face before their lips are brushing together.

They’re quick to turn it into a full-blown make out session that should probably be rated PG-13, but, in their defence, it’s been more than a decade, Emma personally has had this in the back of her mind for a _while_ , and dammit it’s not nearly as awkward as she feared it would be, why the hell didn’t she do it sooner? She had missed it.

“Ow, guys, okay, okay, mission accomplished, I’m—I’m out, I’ll go get the stuff for the tree, bye,” Henry quickly says, sounding a little grossed out – but hopefully not traumatized for life – by the result of his plan.

Emma grins, and she can feel Neal’s mouth twisting against hers as well.

Henry is out of the door so quickly that he must have _run_.

“Well, it worked,” Neal comments, his arms loosening slightly around her waist as he pulls away a little, looking for a sign that he should step back.

She offers a smile, pulling him back instead, with only a split second of hesitation. Rolling with this is much easier than expected. It feels _good_. “Yeah. Good idea. It was fun.” He’s making the same face Henry made when she agreed to decorate the house with them. It’s adorable. “We could try it again, sometime,” she says, offering a little shrug as she twirls a strand of his hair around her finger.

“Gladly,” he beams.

Henry definitely deserves a chocolate with extra everything for this.  

**Author's Note:**

> This story is part of the [LLF Comment Project](https://longlivefeedback.tumblr.com/llfcommentproject), which was created to improve communication between readers and authors. This author invites and appreciates feedback, including: 
> 
>   * Short comments
>   * Long comments
>   * Questions
>   * “<3” as extra kudos
>   * Reader-reader interaction
> 

> 
> If you don’t want a reply, for any reason, feel free to sign your comment with “whisper” and I will appreciate it but not respond!


End file.
